Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EuWoRD (European Women and Religious Dissent: The Advent of Modernity and the Democratic Public Sphere)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2024-08-31
At a time when fundamentalisms and populisms threaten basic human rights, it is extremely important to investigate the roots of European values such as egalitarianism and democracy. This examination is necessary to contribute to both popular and scholarly debates on these subjects in an informed way. This project – titled “European Women and Religious Dissent: The Advent of Modernity and the Democratic Public Sphere” (EuWoRD) – aims to analyze the contribution of laypersons (women and men) to the development of the Enlightenment, when democratic concepts gradually emerged as basic rights. In particular, focusing on a Protestant religious group in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, it will reveal how religion and religious concepts contributed to the development of modernity.
EuWoRD examines a Protestant group founded in Holland around 1619, called the Collegiant Movement. Their name results from their meetings, called Colleges, which were quickly established in many Dutch cities – the most famous being Amsterdam, Leiden and Rotterdam. Reading and commenting on the Scripture freely – a practice termed “freedom of prophesying” – was the main focus of Colleges. Thus, participants were entitled to speak freely about Scriptural passages, enjoying egalitarianism among members and a broad toleration for all opinions. Differences in social, cultural and religious background did not cause divisions among participants, nor did they hinder the practice of free discussion. It should not be surprising then that people belonging to other religious minorities joined the several Colleges, either as regular members or as occasional participants. Moreover, women enjoyed the same rights as men did when attending such meetings and in Rotterdam, they even organized a women-only College. However, their participation in free discussions was not without consequences. In the late 1650s and 1660s, a few Collegiants raised their voices against such a practice, starting a debate on whether women should enjoy the same right to free speech as men did. The goal of EuWoRD is to analyze such debates within their social and historical context, revealing how the practice of enlightened concepts and the participation of women in Colleges co-created the development of enlightened values. The theory did not cause the practice: both were mutually implicated in development.
While later philosophers were able to expound clearly secular approaches to social and political organization, EuWoRD aims to prove that they were assisted in this by the Collegiants’ social customs and practices, as well as by the Collegiants’ discussions on the development of secularized concepts within the boundaries of religion. EuWoRD has two interrelated objectives. First, it provides an account of Colleges’ organization and practices, focusing on their membership and especially on the presence of women among Collegiants’ ranks. This account reveals that Colleges were not simply religious meetings, but also cross-cultural and interconfessional citizen’s associations, which fostered new social relations, a vernacular reading culture and a freer exchange of ideas. Indeed, besides reading and interpreting the Scripture, participants discussed social and political issues as well. Second, it investigates the interrelations between such practices and the concepts the Collegiants advocated in their writings. This examination pays particular attention to the debates around gender equality and women’s right to free speech, placing them within a broader European context, to explore their relations to similar debates in other European countries (e.g. England and France) and to assess how the Collegiants contributed to such debates.
Given the orginality of this topic and the interdisciplinarity of EuWoRD, it is expected that its outcomes make an important contribution to several scholarly fields, including Women’s and Gender History, the History of European Ideas, the History of Philosophy, and Church and Religious History. Ultimately, EuWoRD will challenge the accepted dichotomy between secularism and religion, re-evaluating the relationship between religion and ideas of modernity, as well as the significance of women and non-philosophers for the history of European ideas. Besides this academic impact, it is expected that EuWoRD makes also a societal impact. This project offers a reminder of how practices of informed and respectful debate can lead to the elaboration of ideas which has underpinned democracies in Europe. While addressing a specific case-study, it provides a new account of an early form of citizens’ association, whose member freely met to discuss basic democratic rights and practices. This is fundamental to inform and inspire the current and still emerging movement of citizen’s assemblies which have begun to convene across Europe. Therefore, to maximize its impact, EuWoRD has produced outcomes for a wide-ranging audience. For instance, beside academic outcomes – such as conference presentations and scholarly papers – a project website has been launched using the ArcGis Storymap Telling programme. This includes a summary of the history of the Collegiant movement and of the role of women among them written for a broad audience. It also includes interactive maps that locate the Collegiant meetings in the city of Amsterdam and Rotterdam both in the seventeenth century and today. In addition to the website, EuWoRD has produced blogs in relevant venues. Two datasets including the list of men and women participating in Collegiant meetings has been made publicly available through Zenodo.
EuWoRD examines a Protestant group founded in Holland around 1619, called the Collegiant Movement. Their name results from their meetings, called Colleges, which were quickly established in many Dutch cities – the most famous being Amsterdam, Leiden and Rotterdam. Reading and commenting on the Scripture freely – a practice termed “freedom of prophesying” – was the main focus of Colleges. Thus, participants were entitled to speak freely about Scriptural passages, enjoying egalitarianism among members and a broad toleration for all opinions. Differences in social, cultural and religious background did not cause divisions among participants, nor did they hinder the practice of free discussion. It should not be surprising then that people belonging to other religious minorities joined the several Colleges, either as regular members or as occasional participants. Moreover, women enjoyed the same rights as men did when attending such meetings and in Rotterdam, they even organized a women-only College. However, their participation in free discussions was not without consequences. In the late 1650s and 1660s, a few Collegiants raised their voices against such a practice, starting a debate on whether women should enjoy the same right to free speech as men did. The goal of EuWoRD is to analyze such debates within their social and historical context, revealing how the practice of enlightened concepts and the participation of women in Colleges co-created the development of enlightened values. The theory did not cause the practice: both were mutually implicated in development.
While later philosophers were able to expound clearly secular approaches to social and political organization, EuWoRD aims to prove that they were assisted in this by the Collegiants’ social customs and practices, as well as by the Collegiants’ discussions on the development of secularized concepts within the boundaries of religion. EuWoRD has two interrelated objectives. First, it provides an account of Colleges’ organization and practices, focusing on their membership and especially on the presence of women among Collegiants’ ranks. This account reveals that Colleges were not simply religious meetings, but also cross-cultural and interconfessional citizen’s associations, which fostered new social relations, a vernacular reading culture and a freer exchange of ideas. Indeed, besides reading and interpreting the Scripture, participants discussed social and political issues as well. Second, it investigates the interrelations between such practices and the concepts the Collegiants advocated in their writings. This examination pays particular attention to the debates around gender equality and women’s right to free speech, placing them within a broader European context, to explore their relations to similar debates in other European countries (e.g. England and France) and to assess how the Collegiants contributed to such debates.
Given the orginality of this topic and the interdisciplinarity of EuWoRD, it is expected that its outcomes make an important contribution to several scholarly fields, including Women’s and Gender History, the History of European Ideas, the History of Philosophy, and Church and Religious History. Ultimately, EuWoRD will challenge the accepted dichotomy between secularism and religion, re-evaluating the relationship between religion and ideas of modernity, as well as the significance of women and non-philosophers for the history of European ideas. Besides this academic impact, it is expected that EuWoRD makes also a societal impact. This project offers a reminder of how practices of informed and respectful debate can lead to the elaboration of ideas which has underpinned democracies in Europe. While addressing a specific case-study, it provides a new account of an early form of citizens’ association, whose member freely met to discuss basic democratic rights and practices. This is fundamental to inform and inspire the current and still emerging movement of citizen’s assemblies which have begun to convene across Europe. Therefore, to maximize its impact, EuWoRD has produced outcomes for a wide-ranging audience. For instance, beside academic outcomes – such as conference presentations and scholarly papers – a project website has been launched using the ArcGis Storymap Telling programme. This includes a summary of the history of the Collegiant movement and of the role of women among them written for a broad audience. It also includes interactive maps that locate the Collegiant meetings in the city of Amsterdam and Rotterdam both in the seventeenth century and today. In addition to the website, EuWoRD has produced blogs in relevant venues. Two datasets including the list of men and women participating in Collegiant meetings has been made publicly available through Zenodo.
The EuWoRD project involved conducting new research in Dutch archives, examining primary published sources and engaging with relevant historical literature.
Since the very beginning of the project, I accessed archival material looking for new data on the history of the Collegiant women and of the women involved in it. In particular, my research has focused on two main archives: the city archives in Amsterdam (Stadsarchief Amsterdam) and in Rotterdam (Stadsarchief Rotterdam). Many sources kept in the former has been digitized and I took advantage of this opportunity. While in Dublin, I examined the Dutch Reformed consistory books digitized by the Amsterdam city archive. These books are divided in chronological order and includes information on the life of common men and women in early modern Amsterdam. I have accessed the books dating from 1640 to 1700, which included essential information on where the Collegiants met in Amsterdam, how many times each week, what practices they enacted in their meetings, and most importantly, who participated in such meetings. Thanks to this data, I began a partial list of the membership of the Amsterdam college in the period under examination. These initial findings were later expanded through on-site research. I spent to months in the Netherlands, where I visited: the city archive in Amsterdam to access non-digitized materia; the Special Collection Library of the Allard Pierson museum; the city archive in Rotterdam. Among the non-digitized material, the Stadsarchief Amsterdam includes a corpus of documents related to the Collegiant movement dating from 1675 onwards: this material included important information useful to expand the list of men and women who belonged to the movement and to have a better understanding of its practices. The Special Collection Library of the Allard Pierson also includes many manuscript documents - some of them out of the digital catalogue - related to the Collegiant. Among the findings, it must be mentioned a manuscript poem written around 1705 by a Collegiant poetess named Gesine Brit. As for the Stadsarchief Rotterdam, I accessed the consistory books of the local community dating from 1630 to 1700, and took pictures of the relevant pages in order to examine them carefully once back in Dublin.
This examination of archival material was integrated by an analysis of published primary sources and more recent studies. As for the former, I have focused on Dutch pamphlet literature written by opponents of the Collegiant movement, which, despite being an hostile source, still includes important information on the practices of the Collegiants (to mention one example, Passchier de Fijne’s Lammerenkrijgh: anders, Mennonisten kercken-twist from 1663); and on books published by the Collegiant themselves, such as Laurens Klinkhamer’s Vryheydt van spreecken (1655), the first treatise by a Collegiant addressing the topic of freedom of speech. As for the historiography, I have focused on: the history of women, especially studies by historians Martine van Elk, Phyllis Mack, Hilary Hinds, Sarah Knott, and Barbara Taylor; the history of the Mennonites and the Collegiants, especially studies by historians Gary Waite, Michael Driedger, Jacobus van Slee, Piet Visser, and Jori Zijlmans; the history of the Enlightenment and its political concepts, especially studies by historians Jonathan Israel, Wiep van Bunge, John Robertson, and David Sorkin; twentieth-century political philosophy and sociology, particularly works by Jürgen Habermas, Carl Schmidt, Reinhart Koselleck, and Michel Foucault.
Since the very beginning of the project, I accessed archival material looking for new data on the history of the Collegiant women and of the women involved in it. In particular, my research has focused on two main archives: the city archives in Amsterdam (Stadsarchief Amsterdam) and in Rotterdam (Stadsarchief Rotterdam). Many sources kept in the former has been digitized and I took advantage of this opportunity. While in Dublin, I examined the Dutch Reformed consistory books digitized by the Amsterdam city archive. These books are divided in chronological order and includes information on the life of common men and women in early modern Amsterdam. I have accessed the books dating from 1640 to 1700, which included essential information on where the Collegiants met in Amsterdam, how many times each week, what practices they enacted in their meetings, and most importantly, who participated in such meetings. Thanks to this data, I began a partial list of the membership of the Amsterdam college in the period under examination. These initial findings were later expanded through on-site research. I spent to months in the Netherlands, where I visited: the city archive in Amsterdam to access non-digitized materia; the Special Collection Library of the Allard Pierson museum; the city archive in Rotterdam. Among the non-digitized material, the Stadsarchief Amsterdam includes a corpus of documents related to the Collegiant movement dating from 1675 onwards: this material included important information useful to expand the list of men and women who belonged to the movement and to have a better understanding of its practices. The Special Collection Library of the Allard Pierson also includes many manuscript documents - some of them out of the digital catalogue - related to the Collegiant. Among the findings, it must be mentioned a manuscript poem written around 1705 by a Collegiant poetess named Gesine Brit. As for the Stadsarchief Rotterdam, I accessed the consistory books of the local community dating from 1630 to 1700, and took pictures of the relevant pages in order to examine them carefully once back in Dublin.
This examination of archival material was integrated by an analysis of published primary sources and more recent studies. As for the former, I have focused on Dutch pamphlet literature written by opponents of the Collegiant movement, which, despite being an hostile source, still includes important information on the practices of the Collegiants (to mention one example, Passchier de Fijne’s Lammerenkrijgh: anders, Mennonisten kercken-twist from 1663); and on books published by the Collegiant themselves, such as Laurens Klinkhamer’s Vryheydt van spreecken (1655), the first treatise by a Collegiant addressing the topic of freedom of speech. As for the historiography, I have focused on: the history of women, especially studies by historians Martine van Elk, Phyllis Mack, Hilary Hinds, Sarah Knott, and Barbara Taylor; the history of the Mennonites and the Collegiants, especially studies by historians Gary Waite, Michael Driedger, Jacobus van Slee, Piet Visser, and Jori Zijlmans; the history of the Enlightenment and its political concepts, especially studies by historians Jonathan Israel, Wiep van Bunge, John Robertson, and David Sorkin; twentieth-century political philosophy and sociology, particularly works by Jürgen Habermas, Carl Schmidt, Reinhart Koselleck, and Michel Foucault.
The examination of archival material and primary sources in the light of twentieth-century historiographical and philosophical literature has resulted in: a new understanding of who the Collegiants were, how many women were active in their ranks, which practices were at the core of their meetings, and which concepts they defended through their words and actions; a new awareness of the emerging of public spheres in early modern period, in which religious groups such as the Collegiant movement played a pivotal role; a new perspective on the link between the Reformation and the Enlightenment, based on the agency of early modern women who promoted Enlightenment values moved by their faith and religious experiences.
These outcomes have the potential of promoting new research in relevant fields. First and foremost, they can further new studies on the relationship between the Enlightenment, secularization, and modernity: EuWoRD has indeed revealed that modern political values, such as tolerance, freedom of speech, and democracy, were not advanced by secularized philosophers and thinkers only, but also by men and women who acted as part of their religious community and conceived those same concepts in accordance to their religious beliefs and practices. In this regard, EuWoRD stresses the importance of focusing on less known women, especially those who did not engage in writing, but who still promoted those concepts through their agency and whose life can be reconstructed by careful archival research. Secondly, it opens new perspective on the Collegiant movement well beyond the state of the art: not simply because of the focus on the gender aspect of the Collegiants’ thought and on the history of women among their ranks; but also because it reveals the deep involvement of the Collegiant in the societal, cultural, and political transformation of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Thirdly, and accordingly, EuWoRD can enhance new research on the relationship between religious and political authorities in the early modern period, with a special emphasis on how both dealt with members of their communities according to social and gendered bias.
These outcomes have the potential of promoting new research in relevant fields. First and foremost, they can further new studies on the relationship between the Enlightenment, secularization, and modernity: EuWoRD has indeed revealed that modern political values, such as tolerance, freedom of speech, and democracy, were not advanced by secularized philosophers and thinkers only, but also by men and women who acted as part of their religious community and conceived those same concepts in accordance to their religious beliefs and practices. In this regard, EuWoRD stresses the importance of focusing on less known women, especially those who did not engage in writing, but who still promoted those concepts through their agency and whose life can be reconstructed by careful archival research. Secondly, it opens new perspective on the Collegiant movement well beyond the state of the art: not simply because of the focus on the gender aspect of the Collegiants’ thought and on the history of women among their ranks; but also because it reveals the deep involvement of the Collegiant in the societal, cultural, and political transformation of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Thirdly, and accordingly, EuWoRD can enhance new research on the relationship between religious and political authorities in the early modern period, with a special emphasis on how both dealt with members of their communities according to social and gendered bias.